By Philip Mangwiro On Nov 26, 2019
Africans ‘Denied’ Canadian Visas, Immigration Data paints a gloomy picture
Africans seeking to visit Canada have had their hopes dampened after a special report by CBC News. Visa applications from Africa have more difficulty getting approved as compared to other continents leading many to question the system over discrimination.
According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) data obtained for the period 2015-2019, The Approval rate for Africans has fallen by 18.4%. This year alone about one-third of participants needing visas to attend the Black in AI workshop at the annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) in Vancouver had their applications denied despite organizers having applied a year prior to the event.
IRCC didn’t provide CBC News with an explanation as to why African travellers fared worse than others in obtaining temporary resident visas, however in an email, a spokesperson wrote:
“We are aware that a few [Black in AI] invitees’ visa applications were refused and understand their disappointment. These decisions are made by highly trained officers who carefully and consistently assess each application equally against the same criteria, as laid out by the Immigration, Refugees and Protection Act.”
.
According to IRCC’s data, while the approval rate for TRVs for travellers from African countries is trending down, the rates vary from country to country. The Nigerian approval rate dropped by 31 per cent, while the rate of approval for Kenyans and South Africans only decreased by seven per cent down. Mali bucked the continental trend, with the approval rate rising slightly over the four-year period.
Despite Nigeria’s relatively low TRV approval rate, the country still accounts for a large number of visitors to Canada, with more than 14,000 visiting in 2018.
The low approval rate has led to Academics promising not to apply for Canadian visas given that the system is already rigged against them.
However according to a spokesperson for IRCC, “there is absolutely no discrimination in [Canada’s] visa assessment process.”
More From IHarare